When you look at early-stage investment data from the UK over the last ten years, a clear trend emerges.
Despite the resilience of early-stage funding during the downturn, despite the growing maturity of the UK VC ecosystem and despite record numbers of new founders entering the market, it’s taking new startups longer and longer to raise pre-seed and seed rounds.
Ten years ago it took startups, on average, one year to secure $250k. Now, it takes them 1.5 years.
This shift is more pronounced when you look at Seed Stage. Ten years ago, it took startups 1.8 years to raise $1M; now, it takes 3.2 years. Since 2014, the average amount of time to raise a Seed round in the UK has risen steadily every year. …
